'The Crown' Season 3: Princess Margaret's Ill-Fated Marriage

A sneak peek at some of the ground the Netflix series might cover.

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Published July 30, 2018

Published 15 days ago

Season 2 of the Netflix series "The Crown" dramatized how Princess Margaret, the Queen's willful younger sister, handled the heartbreak of her thwarted romance with Captain Peter Townsend. By episode 7, Margaret had bounced back as a beaming bride at Westminster Abbey, capturing the world's attention by exchanging televised vows with the dashing, but darkly secretive photographer Antony Amstrong-Jones (later given the title Earl of Snowdon by the Queen). What will season 3 have in store for Margaret? Producers have been mum so far, but with Helena Bonham-Carter now cast in the role, we can only imagine there's more drama on the horizon. Here, a look at the highs and lows of the real-life Princess Margaret's marriage, which may very well serve as material for the show. (Warning: History — and thus spoilers! — ahead...)

Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty ImagesA MODERN PRINCESSShortly before their wedding, Armstrong-Jones studies his bride-to-be as she smokes and takes photos during a horse-training event. They met at a party in 1958 and, as dramatized on "The Crown," he took a birthday portrait of Margaret that caused a stir. (The picture showed the princess' bare shoulders and gave the illusion she was nude.)

Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty ImagesWEDDING DAYMay 6, 1960: Margaret and Armstrong-Jones' royal wedding was the first to be broadcast on TV. Some in royal circles disapproved of their union because Armstrong-Jones was a commoner.Anwar Hussein/Getty ImagesABOARD THE BRITANNIAThe princess and Armstrong-Jones cruise the Caribbean on a six-week honeymoon. During week 3, one of the women with whom he had been involved just months before marrying Margaret gave birth to their love child, Polly Fry. It would be decades before Lord Snowdon would acknowledge the truth, as borne out by DNA tests. Wrote Fry in the Daily Mail in 2008: "Although we may like to think of our own generation as being wild and wonderful, in comparison to what our parents got up to in the swinging '60s, we are mere innocents caught up in the aftermath of the postwar free-love era."Ray Bellisario/Popperfoto/Popperfoto/Getty ImagesTHEY LOVE THE NIGHTLIFEWith looky-loos peering in the window, the newlyweds smile after leaving Royal Albert Hall, November 1960.

Norman Parkinson/Iconic Images/Corbis via Getty ImagesFAMILY LIFEThey'd go on to have two children together: David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon (born in 1961), and Lady Sarah Armstrong-Jones (born in 1964).Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty ImagesMEET THE BEATLESMargaret and Lord Snowdon greet the Fab Four at the London premiere of "Help," 1965.Bill Ray/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesSHARED PASSIONSAt a ranch in 1965.

Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty ImagesPUBLIC DUTIESVisiting Uganda, 1965.Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty ImagesWITH THE AMERICAN PRESIDENTThe princess and Lord Snowdon at the White House with Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson in 1965.Rolls Press/Popperfoto/Popperfoto/Getty ImagesD.C. DANCINGWearing a tiara, Margaret takes a spin with Antony.

DALMAS/AFP/Getty ImagesVACATIONING IN THE BAHAMASThe couple in March 1967.Fox Photos/Getty ImagesSTAYING ALOFTThe princess and her husband on board a hovercraft named after her.Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty ImagesFAMILY TIMEWith their children at Kensington Palace, 1969. Today, David is a furniture maker and a former chair of Christie's auction house, and Sarah is a prize-winning painter.

Anwar Hussein/WireImageFACING THE FUTUREThe pair were famous for their glamour and stylishness, but the marriage was a tumultuous one: Lord Snowdon's biographer Anne de Courcy has detailed extramarital affairs on both sides, as well as heavy drinking and bitter resentments (Lord Snowdon, de Courcy wrote, would leave notes in Margaret's books listing all the things he hated about her).Michael Putland/Getty ImagesWITH THE ROCKET MANGreeting Elton John backstage at a benefit concert, 1972.Rolls Press/Popperfoto/Popperfoto/Getty ImagesHAPPIER DAYSThe couple in 1960, after announcing their engagement. They officially divorced in July 1978, and by that December, Lord Snowdon had married second wife Lucy Mary Lindsay-Hogg. (They've both since passed away: Princess Margaret in 2002 and Lord Snowdon in 2017.)